Extra, extra!

I remember at the end of last year when I saw a photo of someone's newpaper nails, I immediately wanted to give it a try. However, there weren't enough tutorials (actually, none in English) so I was a little skeptical of the process since Google translations doesn't seem to possess any ability to construct grammatically correct sentences. Half guessing, I tried the nail art using methylated spirits thinking vodka itself is ethanol so that means it should be more effective if I use something with 100% ethanol like methylated spirits.

I was wrong.

I know, you're probably not surprised. That made me put off newpaper nails for almost a whole year.

This time, using my secret stash of peach vodka, I've successfully created my every own newspaper nail art. My nails also smelt like peach afterwards (bonus).

I decided to stick by the traditional colour and painted my nails a nice neutral base, Orly's Pure Porcelain. This polish was thick and difficult to apply but the upside was that I only needed 1 coat for complete opacity. But I whacked on a second coat to smooth out the streaks. I'm still drooling over the smoothness.

In order for the newspaper print to be transferred, the base polish needs to be completely dried. Being extremely impatient, I accelerated the process by using Qtica's Half Time Polish Drying Accelerator, those liquid ones that come with droppers, and this didn't at all affect the newspaper print transfer.
I love trying to decipher the mirrored words but it'd definitely be amazing if they made newspaper that was printed backwards so the print would come out the right way on my nails. My only selfish request, not too much to ask for, is it?

Nailling tattoo

The fact that the felt tip pen has not left my hand since the beginning of this semester has gotten me thinking about how I can somehow make that into a nail art tool. I remember a while back, I posted an entry where I had used a biro pen to draw on Essie's Matte About You matte topcoat. A felt tip pen is much inkier and doesn't dig into the nail polish surface, making it an accident-proof nail art pen.

So with the "how" solved, my mind wandered towards Chanel's temporary tattoos. I've always wanted to get my hands on them ever since I had heard about them early last year but common sense prevailed.

Enough of my blabberings, I'm quite excited to share with you what I think is a rather good turn out for a design that is so completely spontaneous, inspired by Chanel.

The base is 5 coats of Zoya's Angella. The polish is one of those sheer pink-tinted iridescent pearls. I personally dislike sheer nail polishes because it justs really troublesome appearance-wise when yucky things get caught underneath my nails like glue (blame my course), food (think rainbow sprinkles) and moisturisers. With an excessive 5 coats, the finish is semi-sheer under certain lights and almost opaque in dimmer environments.

Instead of Essie's topcoat, I decided to try out China Glaze Matte Magic's ability to withstand my crazy squiggles. Rather impressive, actually. I've been rubbing on my nails while exerting quite a bit of force and the drawing is yet to budge.

Here's the basic precedure that I had followed to create this:
1. Basecoat (always always always, I absolutely cannot stress this enough).
2. Base colour (in this case, Zoya Angella).
3. Matte topcoat.
4. Attack your nails with whatever pens and colours you've got handy. I've yet to try it with gel pens.
5. After the pen drawing is dried, seal the design with another layer of matte topcoat, or normal, depending on the finish you're chasing.

To my surprise, the whole process had taken less time than a normal manicure since matte topcoats dry in a flash, even faster than those polishes that claim to "dry with in 60 seconds (liars)". This is so much cheaper than those Chanel tattoos and just as effective, in my opinion.

Haul-lo from the U S of A

I marvel at my extraordinary ability to make dodgy puns.

America was heaven for a nail polish addict like me when compared to Australia. I live in a hole. That's my conclusion. Why does the stupid island of a continent have to double the price for everything? I've found so many 'old' polishes that I've been craving for heaps long like Lincoln Park at Midnight in Nordstrom Rack for just $8 a bottle. Absolute Bliss, with a capital B.

I really want a DSLR. The quality of the photo is so very different, in a good way, of course. Compare this photo taken with my friend's DSLR to the terrible photos from my dummy point-and-shoot camera.

The bottles look so shiny and the colours look so true! So on the top row of Essie from left to right: Silken Cord, Splash of Grenadine, Lilacism, Borrowed & Blue, Smokin' Hot, and Over the Top. Bottom row of OPI and Orly from left to right again: Malaga Wine, Lincoln Park at Midnight, La Playa, Royal Navy, Pure Porcelain, Winter Wonderland, Stranger Tides, and Mermaid's Tears.

There are also OPI's Lucky Lucky Lavender, Suzi Says Feng Shui and Russian Navy, plus Sephora by OPI's Queen of Everything and Spark-tacular! that somehow I had forgotten to photograph. Great memory I've got there.

This haul definitely saves me from making that agonisingly long trip to Bankstown.

Bling bling, Blinx!

I am way too lazy for my own good. I've gone to American for 3 weeks during my semester break and had a blast. Its been 5 weeks since I've been back and somehow my blog had just completely slipped my mind. I've brought back a whopping 18 bottles of nail polish. I'm so excited to try them all but I haven't been motivated to paint my nails since I got back because catching a 20kg suitcase with my nails wasn't the smartest thing to do. So now I'm forced to look at ugly, stubby nails until they grow back.

Now onto something less depression and whingey. Before I left for the States, I tried out these fabulous things called Blinx. They're pretty much the less expensive version of Minx, great for poor students like myself. They're just like stickers but except the $18 had paid off and these babies had stayed on for a good week, minimum. They've gone through the hot showers, humid weather and any other type of abuse imaginable and only very very minor lifting was witnessed.

Like I always say, I am an absolute sucker for shiny and reflective surfaces. My vanity is really coming through. I love these babies. I've gotten countless compliments while I was wearing them. I was kind of sad when I had to peel them off cos I had been wearing them for almost 2 weeks. Removal was easy peasy. They didn't leave any sticky residue and neither had they damaged my nails.

I am extremely impressed with Blinx nails. Personally, I think it's definitely worth your time to check them out. And with such affordability and durability, you can look glamourous everyday. I'm starting to sound like a commercial so I'll shut up and let you do the judging.

Formal raspberry

I painted my nails after surviving a whole day with very naked nails. Nothing special, really. This nail art is pure spontaneity, like 99% of what I do. Ever since receiving my Zoya polishes, I've been dying to try this colour out. I've also been getting this overwhelming urge to stick billions and trillions and gazillions of useless rhinestones onto my nails. Completely random, I know. So obviously, the ring finger was the first to happen.
The rhinestones were actually red in colour. In my dark, dim study at 10PM, Zoya Quinn appeared a lot redder than its actual burgundy-wine-ish colour. I've realised my mistake after I stuck those little buggers on. Being me, I was too lazy to redo that nail so I painted the rhinestones instead.
But amazingly, the rhinestones still retained their glow! I'm happy. I am in love with this polish. Love! Love love! Love love love! Then I whacked bows everywhere because a girl can never have too many bows. But I do have to admit that my ring finger looks like a giant rapsberry while the bows remind me of tuxedos. I should get some sleep before I start seeing penguins.
The white lines and patches are done with L.A. Colour Art Deco. And of course, 10 millions layers of top coat on top of everything. The other hand is kind of plain in comparison but a mistake on the pinky of that hand (I call it a "happy accident") had given me a brilliant idea for my next new manicure. Stay tuned for my stroke of brilliance!